Big Cat Facts

Cheetah: They can run up to 70 miles per hour.Instead of roaring like other cats, they purr. In one bound, a cheetah can go 23 to 26 feet. Mountain lions and cheetahs have the same ancestry.

Lion: The roar of a lion can be hard five miles away. Lion live up to 25 years in captivity and 12 to 16 years in he wild. The lions are the only big cats that live in groups called prides. Almost every female lion in the pride is related. Lions have a tuft of fur at the end of their tail, which other cats don't have.

Snow leopard: A snow leopard can leap seven times their own height because of their "strong, muscular hind legs."

Tigers: Their "stripes are like fingerprints- no two animals have the same pattern." Tigers can swim very well. They don't stay away from water. Because of their bones, skin other other body parts, they are hunted for traditional Chinese medicine.






Source: Big Cats Facts

New Cubs Bring Hope to Tigers

Hope has been brought to a rare species of tigers called Sumatran. Three female and one male tiger cubs have been born in the Oklahoma City Zoo after three years of waiting for there to be cubs. There are less than 300 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. These cubs are bringing hope for the almost existent tigers to come back from "the brink extinction". Three out of nine species of tigers have already gone extinct in the past 70 years. The Amur, Bengal, Malayan, South China, and Sumatran are the six remaining species of tigers still left. All of them on the "endangered or critically endangered list".

They tigers are being lost mostly because of habitat loss or poaching. Tiger bones, eyes, teeth and other parts are used in some Asian countries as medicine for malaria and meningitis. Tiger are also hunted for there skin to be sold by group or individual poachers. Some roads that are built make the tigers territory smaller and prey might be to small for the groups of tigers. The World Wildlife and Wildlife Conservation Society are attempting to get a "top-level" Asian government official to get involved in tiger conservation. Conservation is being helped by individual members of villages who patrol forests to make sure there are no illegal poachers. Also, there are programs in zoos to help increase the tiger population.




Source: Life Science

The Future of the Tiger — And What You Can Do

This year it is the year of the tiger, but it's not a good year for tigers. Tigers are losing their population really fast. They are losing their population from hunting and people using their fur for clothing and for special medicines. In South East Asia tigers dropped more than 70% in there population. There was at least 1,200 tigers in 1998. Now there are only about 350 there now in the last 10 years.

If this keeps going on the population of the tigers will plummet. But the organization WWF is helping save their population by making people hunt less for clothing and medicine. Instead they are using a substitute for the clothing and medicine like cotton for clothing and plants for medicine.

Hillwood students can help the tigers by helping the environment and when you are buying clothing see if it is impacting the tigers or other animal.

Below is an Animoto video that I made to help illustrate my story. You can also read more at National Geographic.